Treatment of grain products



Patented May 8,1934 v r 1,957,688

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1,957,688 TREATMENT OF GRAIN PRODUCTS Morris J. Blish, Lincoln, Nebn, assignor to General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application June 22, 1929,

Serial No. 373,056

8 Claims. (Cl. 99-10) This invention relates to the treatment of grains According to the present invention, the effects and grain products by means of certain chemlp du d up n th b ad aki s ara st cs cal agents for the purpose of modifying its breadof fl u by Such oxidizing agents y be reversed making characteristics, and to the modified grain and the breadmakin characteristics Controlled products resulting from such treatment. Th into suit requirements without injurious effect upon vention is particularly applicable to wheat and the 0 0 Of the fl u 1 b dwheat products. The treatment may be applied The p ese t ve tio inv lves treating the either to the grain itself, the fiour milled therefi with a s wh h indirectly from, or the dough made from the flour. cause a reducing effect. 058 Sulphur 001m 10 Flours from diiferent sources vary considerapou ds Which contain Sulphur in a more 165$ bly in their breadmaking characteristics and, reduced state are particularly useful for the purtherefore require different treatments in order pose; for example, sulphides, sulphites, thiosulthat the flour may be converted into good bread. D p r dioxide, Sodium sulphite With some flours, it is difficult to make good bread nd c rb n disulphide r nv i n a 5 by any treatment; and in the case of many flours, Other reducing agents, for instance, nitrites, may the variations of treatment required to make good he used but apparently are not as desirable as bread are so great that they are not suitable the sulphur compounds. The sulphur comfor use in large baking establishments where pounds are cheap and efiective in such small standardized processes of manipulation and bakamounts as to be difl'icult to detect after use by 20 ing are employed. According to the present inchemical analysis and in such quantities as are vention, the breadmaking characteristics of many nutritionally harmless. They may be applied flours are materially improved, especially those either to the grain or to the flour in the mill or natural flours which resemble overaged or overto the dough in the bake shop. They may be bleached flours in having a low fermentation used either before or after the treatment of the 25 tolerance. flour with oxidizing agents. Furthermore, the

It is customary to treat flour with chemical efiects produced upon the breadmaking characagents for the purpose of whitening its color. teristics of flour by reducing and oxidizing agents Such treatments are usually carried out in the are reversible so that flour which has been inmill but may in some instances be carried out in jured by overtreatment with either one may be 30 the bake shop. restored to optimum condition by subsequent The chemical agents'used for this purpose are treatment with the other. of a character which tend directly 'or indirectly One of the simplest methods of applying this to promote oxidation and for convenience such invention is to treat wheat in tempering. For agents will be hereinafter referred to as oxidizexample, wheat may be tempered with a 1% or 35 ing agents. Common examples of such chemi- 2% solution of sodium sulphite, instead of water cals are nitrogen trichloride, chlorine, nitrosyl alone, using, for example, .01 to .1 pound of sochloride, benzoyl peroxide, calcium peroxide, podium sulphite per one hundred pounds of wheat. tassium bromate, ammonium or potassium per- The flour made from such treated wheat may sulphate, etc. Many flours ares'ubjected to the subsequently be treated with oxidizing agents 40 combined eifect of several of these agents before for improving its color. While such treatment they are finally converted into bread. Treatment of the wheat does not materially affect the in- With these agents usually affects o n y t fluence of oxidizing agents upon the color of the 00101 of 1ihe fleul but 8-150 its breadmaking charflour, it diminishes the risk of over oxidation acteristics. While the breadmaking characterisdamaging its breadmaking characteristics, theretics of certain flours subjected to proper treatby permitting maximum color removal. mo

ment with oxidizing agents may be improved, in Another method of applying this invention is the case of other flours treatment-with oxidizing to treat flour during or after the milling and before agents sufficient to obtain a satisfactory color or after the application of oxidizing agents. The iniuriously affects the breadmaking characterisquantity of reducing agent used depends upon the m5 tics of the flour. Also in the case of all flours degree of effect desired but in any case is relathere is risk of occasionally overtreating a batch tively minute. For example, from .0005 to .005

with oxidizing agents with the result that its pound of sodium sulphite to one hundred breadmaking characteristics are seriously inpounds of flour will usually be sufiicient to pro- 5$ jured. I duce the desired effect. The sodium sulphite may conveniently be mixed with the flour in finely powdered form.

Again the invention may be applied by treating dough made from the flour. The proportions of reducing agent used for the treatment of dough, based on the flour in the dough, may be substantially the same as those used for treating flour.

An alternative method of treatment is to expose the grain or flour to the efiects of small quantities of gaseous reducing agents, such, for example, as sulphur dioxide or carbon disulphide in a gaseous state. Another method is to blend a portion of flour, which has been treated with an excess reducing agent, with a larger quantity of flour requiring treatment.

As above noted, flours from different sources or which have been subjected to diiferent degrees of oxidizing treatment vary widely in the amount of reducing agent needed to yield the best breadmaking characteristics for any particular breakmaking procedure. Therefore, in carrying out the process, it is desirable to determine for each type of batch to be treated the optimum proportions of reducing agent. This may be easily established by applying varying proportions of reducing agent to a few laboratory samples of the particular material to be treated and examining bread baked therefrom. The amount of reducing agent needed will in all cases be a small fraction of a per cent. of the flour treated.

It will be obvious from the foregoing that the invention may be employed in various ways without departing from its spirit and scope.

By the term grain products", as used in th following claims, it is intended to include the grain itself as well as the materials prepared from the grain, such as flour, dough or baking products. The term bread-maln'ng characteristics is used in its broad sense in this industry and includes the characteristics which are of value in the making of bread and other baked product from wheat or other grain products. The expression harmless reducing agent as used in the claims is intended to include all reducing agents which are harmless in the amounts used.

What I claim is:

1. The method of improving the breadmaking characteristics of overoxidized grain products, which comprises treating the same with a harmless reducing agent.

2. The method according to claim 1 in which the reducing agent is a sulphur compound.

3. The method of improving the color and breadmaking characteristics of wheat flour, which comprises treating the wheat flour with an amount of oxidizing agent to bring about maximum improvement of color and subsequently treating the wheat flour with a harmless reducing agent to control the breadmaking characteristics of the flour.

4. A method of preparing grain products comprising subjecting the grain product to a regulated reduction by a harmless reducing agent to give the desired breadmaking characteristics and subsequently treating the grain product with an oxidizing agent to improve its color.

5. A method of improving the breadmaking characteristics of overoxidized wheat flour, which comprises treating the same with a harmless reducing agent.

6. A method of preparing wheat flour comprising subjecting the wheat flour to a regulated reduction by a harmless reducing agent to give the desired breadmaking characteristics and subsequently treating the wheat flour with an oxidizing agent to improve its color.

7. A method of preparing grain products comprising subjecting the grain to a regulated reduction by tempering it with a solution containing a harmless reducing agent to give the desired breadmaking characteristics and subsequently treating the grain product with an oxidizing agent to improve its color.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 in which wheat is tempered with a 1 to 2% solution of sodium sulphite.

MORRIS J. BLISH. 

